By Adenike Lawal
Most often, people use acronyms without necessarily knowing their full meanings because they’ve seen others do this same in a particular context.
It is important to know the meaning of a term or an acronym before using it. Listed below are 25 acronyms we use almost everyday and what they stand for.
1. AM/PM
AM stands for ‘Ante meridiem’ and PM ‘Post Meridiem’. In Latin, they mean ‘before midday’ and ‘after midday’.
2. SMS
Short message service.
3. ATM
Automated Teller machine. It is wrong to say ATM machine because it translates to “Automated teller machine machine.”
4. PIN
Likewise, it is wrong to say PIN number because PIN stands for “personal identification number” and the abbreviation PIN has already included the word “number”.
5. SIM card
SIM stands for “subscriber identity module”. On the other hand, sim card means a smart card carrying an identity number unique to the owner.
6. IQ and EQ
We all know that IQ is used to represent the apparent relative intelligence of a person. But IQ in full form simply means “Intelligent Quotient”. On the other hand, EQ stands for “Emotional Quotient”.
7. DVD
It stands for “Digital video disc” or “digital versatile disc”.
8. USB
Universal serial bus.
9. POS
Short for “point of sale”.
10. FM/AM
FM stands for “frequency modulation” and AM for “Amplitude Modulation”.
11. MTN
Mobile Telecommunication Network.
12. PDF
Portable Document File.
13. BVN
Bank verification Number.
14. USSD
Unstructured supplementary service data.
15. PS
Post Script.
16. PhD
Doctor of Philosophy
17. CC and BCC
A common feature in the email. CC means “carbon copy” while BBC stands for “Blind carbon copy”.
18. GIF
Graphics Interchange Format.
19. WI-FI
Wireless Fidelity.
20. CCTV
Closed-circuit television.
21. ET AL
It is a French word meaning “and others”.
22. GSM
Global System for Mobile Communication.
23. RSVP
It stands for “répondez s’il vous plaît” in French. When translated to English, it means “please reply”.
24. JPEG
This is the most widely used graphics format. It stands for “Joint Photographic Experts Group” who created the standard.
25. DM
It means direct message. It’s not a verb so it’s wrong to say DM me. Instead, you can say send a DM.
